John Edward McGlynn
(1909 - 2002)
John Edward McGlynn was born in Bathurst, west of the Blue Mountains, on 13 December 1909, but his family had moved to Sydney by the age he started school at Glebe Superior Public School and then Sydney Technical High School. He attained the Leaving Certificate in 1926 and then attended Sydney University supported by a scholarship for the children of deceased soldiers – his father having died at Lone Pine, Gallipoli in 1915.
He graduated Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering in 1931, but with little prospect of work at the height of the Depression he and six of his fellow graduates formed the Engineering Development Company Ltd to undertake contract work wherever they could find it. Their most significant project was the supply of 297 cast lanterns for the deck lighting of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There were later replaced with modern utilitarian lamps, but in more recent times replicas of the original lanterns have been restored to the bridge.
By 1932 professional work was starting to be available and McGlynn gained a job for the Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board (MWS&DB) as a pick and shovel labourer cement lining water mains in situ. He soon joined the professional staff as a designing engineer. Among works in which he was involved at this time were the Warringah Surface Reservoir, Prospect Elevated Reservoir, other concrete reservoirs and Nepean Dam.
In 1935 and 1936 McGlynn worked for the NSW Department of Public Works in the Banksia area in charge of Unemployed Relief Schemes, constructing storm water drains and sections of the Botany Bay sea-wall. Later in 1936 he returned to the MWS&DB in the Enfield area supervising sewerage reticulation, also partly funded as unemployment relief.
In 1936 and 1937 he was assistant engineer on the first section of the Woronora Pipeline from the dam to Engadine and then, until 1940, Senior Assistant Engineer for the first stage of the Warragamba Scheme – the Warragamba Emergency Scheme – which was commenced at short notice due to a prolonged drought.
In 1940 he was loaned by the MWS&DB to the Hunter District Water Board as assistant engineer advising on construction of the all-welded Chichester Pipeline from Chichester to Dungog and the Tomago Sandbeds Scheme. In 1942 he returned to Sydney and was resident engineer for the completion of the Woronora Pipeline from Engadine to Penshurst Reservoir. During this period he was also responsible for distributing some hundreds of concrete tetrahedrons as a defence measure along the Manly to Palm Beach coastline as directed by the military authorities. They weighed six tons and were used as anti-tank traps.
In 1943 he was seconded to the Allied Works Council Council Construction Corps and relocated to Brisbane as resident engineer constructing three fuel oil tanks and associated works for allied navies. He returned to Sydney later in 1943 as Designing Engineer on a new spillway for Nepean Dam after the original was destroyed by record breaking rainfall in May 1943. He was also undertaking hydraulic studies and designs for spillways for Warragamba Dam. As the war ended in 1945 McGlynn was working on postwar construction programs and designing the grading for the new “84-inch” Warragamba Pipeline.
In 1946 and 1947 he was senior assistant engineer and acting resident engineer on the Nepean Dam Spillway Construction, and then until 1950 senior assistant engineer on the construction of the Warragamba “84-inch” pipeline, which in fact comprised 1½ miles of 106-inch welded pipeline in tunnel and 14½ miles of 84-inch from the Nepean River to Prospect Reservoir. In 1950 he became the resident engineer for this project.
From 1951 McGlynn was District Engineer in charge of water and sewerage construction in the City Tunnel District. The City Tunnel is a large, deep and highly pressurised conduit from Potts Hill in the western suburbs into the heart of the city. It duplicates the Pressure Tunnel built in the 1930s. Works undertaken by him at this time were Petersham elevated reservoir, the Ashfield to Allaway 48-inch main and the North Georges River Sub-Main Sewer. He then became Inspecting Engineer, Major Works, overseeing the 120-inch Warragamba Pipeline and the beautification of the Warragamba Dam picnic grounds, and then became Chief Construction Engineer.
From 1968 he was Deputy Engineer-in-Chief, Investigations and Survey with responsibility for the design and set out for reticulation and major sewers, and from 1972 to 1974 was Engineer-in-Chief of the MWS&DB.
After retirement he was engaged by the Board for two years as a consulting engineer advising on methods of disposal from the Warriewood and Shellharbour Secondary Treatment Works.
John McGlynn had married Cherie about 1942. They had five children, Jane Elisabeth, Edwina Nora, Ann Cherie, Sarah Angelina and John Mathew. John McGlynn died on 26 September 2002.
A long and fruitful life. (From his family death notice Sydney Morning Herald.)
To access an oral history interview with John Edward McGlynn recorded by Engineering Heritage Sydney please use this link:'
https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Oral_Histories_Sydney
